2026

More than five decades ago, civil engineers in northern Illinois carried out a major engineering experiment by using 246,000 cubic yards of coal fly ash beneath 7,500 feet of a major expressway embankment. The pioneering project, completed in 1972 near Waukegan along the US Route 41 corridor, was one of the earliest large-scale examples of…

Hidden deep in a West Virginia gorge is an abandoned coal town with a surprising connection to Henry Ford. Nuttallburg was once a thriving mining community, its fortunes built on the rich coal and the railway that carried the fuel to distant customers. For decades, miners, railway workers and their families helped turn the isolated…

A huge area of alpine wilderness in southern Colorado has been permanently protected from commercial development after the family of late publishing tycoon Malcolm Forbes donated an 80,000-acre conservation easement. The agreement, managed by Colorado Open Lands, is the largest donated conservation easement in Colorado’s history. It permanently limits subdivision and commercial development on the…